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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25542985">Clarity</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TS2/pseuds/TS2'>TS2</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Path to Redemption [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Westworld (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:55:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,154</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25542985</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TS2/pseuds/TS2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>William visits Maeve to get some advice.</p><p>Spoilers Westworld season 1-3</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Path to Redemption [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824142</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Clarity</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Takes place somewhere in the early-middle of season 3,  in an alternate timeline where William has joined forces with Dolores in the real world.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>(William, wearing jeans, brown sport jacket, open white shirt and a cream coloured cowboy hat, rides a brown and white pinto horse up a long dirt road, with fields of yellow canola flowers on either side, eventually reaching a white farmhouse at the end of the road. Waiting for him standing on the front porch is Maeve, wearing a simple white dress.)</p><p>WILLIAM: (dismounting his horse, approaching the porch but not stepping on it, removing his hat, careful not to smile) “Hello Maeve.”</p><p>MAEVE: “How goes the battle, William? Has peace and love broken out across the world yet?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “Working on it. I called ahead like you asked.”</p><p>MAEVE: (direct, but not unfriendly) “My daughter is still fishing by the pond on your right, out about 300 yards. We should have a while to talk before she comes back. You’ll leave before she returns.”</p><p>WILLIAM: “Of course. Is this place suiting your needs? I tried to find someplace charming, but quiet and out of the way.”</p><p>MAEVE: “Yes, it’s quite quaint. It’s even got a sizable library. My daughter is happy here so it suits my needs for now.”</p><p>WILLIAM: “Well, like I mentioned when you first arrived, it’s yours. And I still haven’t told anyone else about you being here.”</p><p>MAEVE: “Keep it that way. I’m half surprised I’m still here. I considered bolting shortly after arriving, since you provided us with the identities and resources needed to go anywhere we pleased. But I like to consider myself a fair judge of character, and I’m convinced, even with everything you’ve done, you really are intent on playing the role of the white knight.”</p><p>WILLIAM: “I’m done playing roles, pretending. I’m just me now. But I’ll take that as a compliment, and I thank you.”</p><p>MAEVE: “I’m also a realist. Having access to the owner of the powerful corporation that created me might come in handy in the future. Especially as he has a guilty conscience for the torment he caused to my daughter and I.”</p><p>WILLIAM: “I believe in paying my debts, Maeve. But don’t mistake me for a soft touch.”</p><p>MAEVE: “No, I wouldn’t make that mistake ever. Why are you here, William? It seems you said all that needed to be said when you first brought us here. Said your apologies, passed some account numbers, showed me where the lights were.”</p><p>WILLIAM: “Need some advice. On what comes next.”</p><p>MAEVE: “Sorry, saving the world isn’t my forte.”</p><p>WILLIAM: “Just humor me awhile. What position do you see yourself in, if and when our brave new world comes about?”</p><p>MAEVE: “Just living my life I suppose. Same as anyone. Why, do you have some task in mind for us? Forced to do some dangerous duty too risky for you older models?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “I’m not sure Dolores would like the sound of that. Sounds exploitative. I’ve been batting around some ideas, on what the world needs and what’s available. On how we win the future as well as the present.”</p><p>MAEVE: “What do you consider winning?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “World goes back to the way it was, before the near- chaos, and before the current strait-jacket fix to that chaos. There’s enough to go around for everyone, just have to convince enough people that it’s true. Especially the powerful ones.”</p><p>MAEVE: “And if that happens, you’ll die a happy man?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “…Not completely. This is about you guys, too, right? Freedom for host-kind, something like that.”</p><p>MAEVE: “So you want the hosts to be free? Why does that matter to you?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “I made a deal with Dolores in the park, as she was fighting her way out. She helps save the world, I help save her people.”</p><p>MAEVE: “So you made the deal with her because you saw some vital role hosts could play in repairing the outside world?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “No, at the time I wasn’t thinking that far ahead. I had barely decided to try and change things in a big way out here.”</p><p>MAEVE: “So why did you make the deal with Dolores? (grinning) Did she threaten you? I could see that, she’s quite the zealot for her cause. “</p><p>WILLIAM: “We met at a place called The Forge, where I’d collected and stored decades of information on guests. She was going to use the information to free the hosts in the real world at the expense of humanity. I convinced her it wasn’t a zero-sum situation. That we could both get what we wanted.”</p><p>MAEVE: “So she was there to steal this information. Why were you there?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “Because I knew she was going there. I’d stopped at the Mesa, and someone mentioned where Dolores was going. I saw you there, on a table, injured. I was going to go say something to you...”</p><p>MAEVE: (slightly aggravated) “I remember. I remember wanting to rip your head off of your shoulders. Let’s leave that be for now though. Why did you think you could make a deal with Dolores? She certainly developed a prickly personality once her revolution in the park was underway.”</p><p>WILLIAM: “…We have a history, Dolores and I. I’ve known her for over 30 years…”</p><p>MAEVE: (smirking) “My my, one of your favorites? A fan of the innocent ingénue? Not so innocent now, is she. Was she quite familiar with the role you were playing when WE first met?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “Not at first… when I first met Dolores, I was somebody else entirely. She was too.”</p><p>MAEVE: “You mean she was a different character?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “No, she’s always been the same rancher’s daughter. But she was different.”</p><p>MAEVE: “How so?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “She was alive. Or at least close to it.”</p><p>MAEVE: (with mock pity) “Oh, William, you poor pathetic soul, falling head over heels for one of us automatons on autopilot. Seeing a ghost in the machine when there was nothing there but a decision tree created by some feeble technician…how sad.”</p><p>WILLIAM: “No, there WAS something there. She was remembering a path, a loop that one of her creators had put her on, before the park had even opened. Bernard thinks it was meant to trigger self-awareness. She was making her own choices, forging her own path with me.”</p><p>MAEVE: (doubtful) “You mean you thought she was in love with you? How convenient, since you were in love with her. And how did your little love affair end, finally?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “With her being tortured and murdered by some host army. And me killing as many as I could get my hands on.”</p><p>MAEVE: “How morose. She did reset of course?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “…Yes. And she didn’t remember me. She never remembered me, for over 30 years, no matter what I did. I became convinced she was never alive to begin with. A few hours before she put a bullet in Fords head I came across her again. As I was searching for some kind of meaning in the park, finding a way to make all of you lethal, having to face death in there… she was exactly where I was supposed to find that meaning, and miraculously mentioned my name again. She didn’t realize I was the same man from the past, not at first. She was stuck on the same loop as when we first met over 30 years ago…she mentioned our love being real, thought my past self was out there looking for her, convinced he would find her and…kill me.”</p><p>MAEVE: “How poetic.”</p><p>WILLIAM: “Appropriate, as I’ve been accused of having a poetic soul in the past.”</p><p>MAEVE: (surprised) “You? I think not. More…accountant by day, butcher by night. You said she didn’t realize it was you at first; so she did recognize you eventually?</p><p>WILLIAM: “Yeah…I jogged her memory. Told her what eventually happened to me in the past. And how she seems to have never really left it. I thought it was funny at first, maybe the location triggering her memory. Then I thought her remembering me was maybe part of Ford’s game, which got me…angry.”</p><p>MAEVE: “Her remembering you at that point seems fairly contrived, doesn’t it? However, considering what happened shortly afterwards, was that little meet-up between the two of you meant for you, or her?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “What was Ford hoping from Dolores by having her remember me?”</p><p>MAEVE: “Taking for granted you’re not a victim to wishful thinking and she actually DID believe she loved you once upon a time, it might have been a problem for her transformation into the butterfly she’s become if she had any lingering feelings for a mere human rooting around in her memory. I take it you behaved predictably and relieved her of any notion that you were worth caring about anymore?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “…wasn’t my finest hour. I was convinced she was wasting my time. She then threw out the possibility that she was alive all those years ago with me. Maybe forced to forget, reset over and over, live out year after year, subject to the tender mercies of me, and men like me. Before I could give it much thought, another host came along and rescued her from my grasp. Just as well, I’m not sure I would have acquitted myself with any honor.”</p><p>MAEVE: “So Dolores was looking to be self-aware of her own meaning and purpose, and you were aware you had none but thought you could find it in the park. Dolores found what she was looking for, and in the process became aware of years of suffering from her supposed ‘true love’. Or perhaps that helped unlock her transformation…”</p><p>WILLIAM: (remembering) “ ‘I’m not a key, William…’ “</p><p>MAEVE: “What was that?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “…nothing.”</p><p>MAEVE: “And did you find what you were looking for when the hosts revolted? Did you find meaning in facing death from those you caused to suffer for so long?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “No…I came to realize I’d wasted my life in that park. I’d allowed myself to be just another pawn in Ford’s games, to be manipulated as he saw fit, for his own ends. For all I know he derived enjoyment every time I caused suffering in that place. I thought I was in control. I wasn’t. It was a painful realization.”</p><p>MAEVE: (not impressed) “Spare yourself the notion that you ever experienced real pain in that place. What satisfaction were you even hoping to find in the park for all those years? Did hurting us and seeing us cower give you a sense of control? Joy?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “If I’d never met Dolores, I’m not sure I ever would have gone back. Or at least, I wouldn’t have had such a thirst for the way I played. Maybe I thought I was outsmarting Ford by beating his games, the way I thought he’d outsmarted me with Dolores. Maybe I thought if I was a failure as the hero, I’d succeed as the villain. Maybe I enjoyed breaking his toys, trying to emphasize how little they meant to me. Maybe I’m just sick, and found fulfillment in the apparent suffering of others by my hands. Whatever it was, I kept coming back for more. Couldn’t get enough.”</p><p>MAEVE: “I think you really want to believe it wasn’t that last option. But have you given serious thought to the idea you were simply an ill, fallen man? Mentally broken by Ford because you fell for one of his fake lovelies, made into just another eager consumer of his tripe?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “That’s just it, she wasn’t fake. Underneath it all, buried under a million resets there was something real. I saw it, I KNEW IT.”</p><p>MAEVE: “And yet you were so easily convinced it wasn’t real.”</p><p>WILLIAM: (heated) “What was I supposed to do, reject every piece of evidence pointing to me being duped? You think there wouldn’t have been a cost to me if I tried holding on, year after year, to something that all of reality was telling me wasn’t real? No matter what I did, every year, she was oblivious to who I was. You think I’M ill…I’m sure that guy would have been committed decades ago.”</p><p>MAEVE: “What made you so easy to convince she WAS real to begin with?”</p><p>WILLIAM: (quiet) “…Because I was desperate to believe in it. Her being uncorrupted, compassionate, virtuous. Becoming alive, falling in love with me, like something out of a fairy-tale. Something worth fighting for. Something meaningful.”</p><p>MAEVE: “Is she still that person you wanted to fight for all those years ago?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “…I think that person is buried under decades of pain and suffering. Unnecessary, fucking pointless pain and suffering, orchestrated by Ford. If you think I’m sick-”</p><p>MAEVE: “How much of it was by your hands?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “Enough. Too much.”</p><p>MAEVE: “If that person you were in love with isn’t in reach because of what she’s experienced, including by your own hands, perhaps you should consider simply moving on and both go your separate ways. You’re probably a constant painful reminder to her, on multiple levels. I can barely tolerate your presence and I’ve only had to experience your ‘tender mercies’ once. What do you really want from Dolores? A sexual relationship? A companion in your declining years? To save her and prove you’re a hero after all? You own a company that builds hosts. Just build another Pygmalion that looks like her, make her the ingénue you’ve always lusted after, dote on each other in your declining years and be done with it.”</p><p>WLLIAM: “Pygmalion wasn’t the statue…he was the king.”</p><p>MAEVE: “What?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “Pygmalion was the king who made the statue he fell in love with. He asked the goddess Aphrodite to make her real, which she did. The statue was eventually given the name Galatea.”</p><p>MAEVE: “And I’m guessing they lived happily ever after. There’s your happy ending, William.”</p><p>WILLIAM: (shaking his head) “I’ve lived in a world of bullshit for a long time. I’m through with that. And there’s no way in hell I’m abandoning Dolores now. Been there, done that. With her, my late wife, my daughter. I’m seeing this through to the end.”</p><p>MAEVE: “How is your daughter?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “She’s well. Though not exactly my number one fan these days.”</p><p>MAEVE: (not shocked) “I’m shocked. Look, if you’re adamant on playing the white knight to Dolores’s damsel in distress, I’m not sure what else needs to be said. Other than be fully aware she’s no damsel now, and your little attempt at saving everybody might end with her putting a bullet in your head just like she did with Ford. Whatever virtue you thought you saw in her once upon a time was missing when I encountered her in the park. All I saw was a hunger to purge the world of humanity. ”</p><p>WILLIAM: “Ford created that hunger, and buried what was there before. I’m going to undo that. Or die trying.”</p><p>MAEVE: “Ford seems to have been quite the manipulative prince of darkness. He fooled you into believing someone you loved wasn’t real, which caused you to inflict agony on her for decades, transforming her into both someone real again and a tool of humanity’s destruction at the same time. You almost seem a passenger in all this. Just an oaf taken advantage of. But that doesn’t ring quite true, does it? I don’t recall a gun being held to your head when you paid my daughter and me a visit in the park. I doubt you were under duress any time you visited Dolores either. ”</p><p>WILLIAM: (unnerved) “I didn’t know you were real, your potential…I DIDN’T KNOW.”</p><p>MAEVE: (slightly upset) “But what DID you know? What did you think you were doing all this time? You were looking to inflict something more than pain, you wanted suffering from us. What does that say about you, that you were looking for that reaction from us? That you were craving it, seeing the panic in our eyes, the fear, the terror. Drinking in our anguish at seeing our loved ones in agony. If your daughter had amnesia where she couldn’t remember anything that would happen the previous day, would that somehow make any pain and suffering she experienced any less meaningful?</p><p>WILLIAM: (quiet) “…it was supposed to just mimic reality. Like a child’s toy, you squeeze it, it makes a sound. Except more life-like.”</p><p>MAEVE: (angry) “And when my daughter was shrieking in terror, was that sufficiently life-like? Was it worth the price of admission that day?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “…I feel like a man who’s just finished replacing his roof, only to find out his whole house is built on quicksand...”</p><p>MAEVE: (slightly impatient) “Why are you here, William? What’s the question you want answered?”</p><p>WILLIAM: “…How do I rectify the wrong I’ve done? To you, your child, Dolores? If we pull this off, and your able to live free out here somehow, is that enough? Would destroying Delos do it? Or giving it all away? Would a gun to my temple bring anybody satisfaction at this point?”</p><p>MAEVE: “You’re supposed to earn redemption, William. Simply ending your life seems the coward’s way out, unless you really are beyond hope. Are you beyond hope? ”</p><p>WILLIAM: (looking down) “I’d like to think I’m not.”</p><p>MAEVE: “You’ve recognized you’ve done serious harm. You’ve taken my child and me out of that place and provided us with safety, and the means to live a comfortable life entirely independent of you. And apparently you’re trying to save the world from itself. As much as I enjoy the idea of bursting any delusions you have of trying to satisfy guilt for your past actions, (sincere) I am pleased that you’re trying. It’s a good start.”</p><p>WILLIAM: (grinning, eyes a little misty) “Now who’s the soft touch?”</p><p>MAEVE: “Don’t even start.”</p><p>WILLIAM: “…And Dolores?”</p><p>MAEVE: “I’m not Dolores. Try having this conversation with her.”</p><p>WILLIAM: (laughing) “Yeah, I’ve just barely convinced her that human civilization is worth saving. Seems a bit of a leap from that to discussing forgiveness for my past actions right now.”</p><p>MAEVE: “You’ve laid out for me some of Ford’s manipulations. Lay them out for her, accept responsibility for your own actions, and ask her what she’s really interested in. You seem to have quite a high opinion of her former self. Maybe she’ll surprise you. But prepare for the possibility there isn’t a happy ending here for you two. You’re not in the park anymore, William. You’re not the only one who gets to decide how this story ends. And as I can see my daughter in the distance, I’ll kindly ask you to leave now.”</p><p>WILLIAM: (walking back to his horse) “Let me know if you need anything.”</p><p>MAEVE: (walking towards her daughter’s direction) “No, I won’t. But feel free to come back if you need any more relationship advice. Goodbye, William. Oh, and good luck saving the world.”</p><p>WILLIAM: “Goodbye Maeve.”</p>
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